Just to the right of the counter inside of Fanboy Comics is a sign that bears the store’s logo. Looking closer at the logo’s letter font you notice it’s made solely of dialogue bubbles cut carefully from comic books. Layers of the bubbles fit nicely inside the letter font and the background is painted with other pieces of old comic book pages.

by Andrea Fluty, a collage artist who has lived in Wilmington since 2005. Fluty has a hearty, infectious laugh. She confesses a fondness for office supplies, working with X-acto knives and peeling glue off her fingers. The latter is a plus because her work requires a lot of it. The artwork was born out of a gift for her boyfriend, for whom she made a desk covered in Superman images. Once the desk was complete she there were leftover pieces and images.

This led to her canvas based images of superheroes, some straight collages and others, like the headshots of superheroes like Batman and Superman on the wall above the register in Jake’s Memory Lane Comics (now on Market Street). Fluty’s artwork has taken off, no pun intended, and become popular at comic conventions and comic book fans in the area, even comic book artist Walt Simonson.

Fluty has been making high quality Giclee’ prints of her work at Image Monster. There they scan and make 80-year archival prints on high quality paper. She sells some originals but prints come in different sizes – 12 x 18 prints ($35), 18 x 24 ($75) and 24 x 36 ($120,) and can be found at Etsy and local comic book shops.

Word has spread enough that Fluty has been doing commissions and one can imagine long nights of comic book cutting parties to make her art. But before the comic book purists get too heated, Fluty buys old, rough copies of comic books to make art. Below is more of my conversation with Fluty.

How long has your work been at Jake’s Memory Lane Comics and Fanboy Comics?

Fluty: Only in the last year. The first convention I ever went to was the Heroes Convention in June. I had a few pieces. I had a desk I made for my boyfriend in Superman comics and had leftovers. So, I started doing new pieces and brought them into Fanboy Comics where I was getting back issues from. They said they were good and that I should do something with them. They invited me to show my work at the Free Comic Book Day that’s held every year.

Is this something new for you or have you done something similar?

Yeah, it is. It’s single media. A lot of people media think its mixed media. There is nothing on any of the originals that isn’t a piece of the comic books, the whites in the eyes, ever single piece. There’s never any paint or markers you find in collages.

What era do you pick old copies from for cutting up?

When I started I tried to stick with late 80’s and early 90’s comics because they were (so many copies printed). I thought that range of years would be pretty reasonable. This Shazam piece I’m working on now is from a 1970’s series, 22 issues I found a lot on eBay. I use the worst possible copies I can find, beater copies without covers. I like the way these older, more yellowed comics for some of the stuff I’m doing. Plus the smellis better. I like the smell of a nice old comic book.

Are comic fans shocked by what you’ve done?

There’s always the one purist I find at a convention or someone that says they can’t believe I’m cutting up an old comic books, like I’m killing a puppy you just got. They’re really bad copies of these books, me cutting this one up takes a crappy one off the market.

About This Blog

The WAE: Wilmington-area Arts & Entertainment is dedicated to experiencing, discussing and promoting the arts in Southeastern N.C. From theater and all manner of music to visual art, dance, festivals and more, The WAE is populated by people who are immersed in local A&E. If it’s about A&E in Southeastern N.C., then we’re all about it.